The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-08-08

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| mise.
But l must ask the men engaged in life
insurance business whether they feel the
Importance of their trust, and charge them
| must that they need Divine grace to help
them in their work In this day, where
there are so many rivalries in your line of
business you will be tempted to oveTstate
the amount of assets and the extent of the
surplus, and you will be tempted to abuse
the franchise of the company, and make up
the deficits of one year, by adding some OF
the receipts of another year; and you will
be tempted to send out mean, anonymous
circulars derogatory TO other companies,
forgetful of the fact that anonymous com
munication means only two things: the
cowariice of tho author and the inetiiciency
of the police in allowing such IA thing
to be dated anywhere save inside of a peni
tentiary. Under the mighty pressure many
have gone down. and you will follow them
If you have too much confidence in your
self, and do not appeal to the Lord for posi-
tive help. But if any of you belong to that
miscreant class of people who, without any
financial ability, organize themselves into
what they call life insurance company,
with a pretended capital of two hundred
thousand dollars or three hundred Thousand
dollars, then vote yourself into the lucra-
tive position, and then take all the premiums
for yourself, and then. at the approach
of the State Superintendent, drop all into
the hands of those life insurance under
takers whose business it is to gather up the
remains of defunct organizations and bury
them in their own vault--then, | say, you
had better get out of the business and dis
gorge the widows houses you have swal-
lowed. But my word is TO all those who
are legitinately engaged in the business
You ought to be better than other men, not
only because of the responsibilities that rest
upon you but because the truth is ever con
fronting you that your stay on earth is un-
certain, and your life a matter of q few
days or years. Do not those black
edged letters that come into your
Office make you thinkl Does not
the doctors certificate on the death
claim give you thrill Your periodicals,
your advertisements, and even the litho-
graphy of your policies warn you TINT you
are morCal According TO your own show
ing the chances that you will die this year
are ut least per cent. Are you prepared
for the tremendous exigencys The most
condemned man in the Judgment day will
be the unprepared life insurance man, for
the simple reason that his whole business
was connected with human exit, and he can
not say: 81 did not think" His whole bust
ness was to think on that one thing. o. my
brother, get insured for eternity. In con-
sderation of what Christ has done in your
out, signed and sealed with the red seal of
the cross.
But have words of encouragement and
comfort for those of my hearers who are
engaged in the fire insurance business. You
are ordained by God to stand between us
and the most raging element of nature. We
are indebted to you for what the National
Board of Underwriters and the Convention
Of Chiefs of the Fire Department have
effected through your suggestions, and
through your encouragement. We are in
debted to you for what you have effected in
the construction of buildings, and in the
change in the habits of our cities; SO that by
scientific principles orderly companies ex-
tinguish the fire, instead of the old
time riots which used to extinglIish
the citizensl And we are indebted
to you for the successful demands you have
made for the repeal of unjust laws-for the
and arson-for the fatal blow you have
given to the theory that corporations have
no souls, by the cheerfulness and prompti-
tude with which you have met losses, from
which you might have escaped through the
technicality Of the law. / do not know any
class of men in our midst more hightoned
and worthy of confidence than these men,
and yet have sometimes feared that while
your chief business is to calculate about
iNpof' WI tHl piiy JOu iiiBhb,
without sufficient thought, go into
that which, in regard to your soul,
in your own parlance, might be call
ed F'hazards," hextra hazards" Especial
hazards" An unforgiven sin in the soul is
more infammable and explosive than cam
phine or nitro-glycerine However the
rates may be-yea, though the whole earth
were paid down TO you in one solid premium
you cannot afford TO lose your soul. Do
not take that risk lest it be said hereafter
that while in this world you had keen bust
ness faculty when you went out of the
world you went out eyerlastingly insOlvent.
The scientific Hitchcocks, and Sillimans,
and Mitchells of the world have united with
the sacred writers to make us believe that
there is coming a conhagration, TO sweep
across the earth compared with which that
of Chicago in 1871, and that OF Boston in
1872, and that of New York in 1886, were
mere nothing. Brooklyn on firel New
York on iirel Charleston ON fire. San
Francisco on fire. Canton on fire! st.
Petersburg on fire! Paris on fret The
Andes on fire! The Apprentices on flrel The
Himalaya on fire What will be peculiar
about the day will be the water wifi which
we put out great fires will itself take flame;
and the Mississippi, and the Ohio, and the
St Lawrence, and Lake Erie, and the At
lantic and the Pacific Oceans, and tumbling
Niagara, shall with red tongues lick the
heavens The geological heats Of the centre
of the world will burn out toward the cir
conference, and the heats of the outside
will burn down from the circumference TO
the centre, and this world will become not
only according to the Bible but according
TO science, living coal-the
living coal afterward whitening
into ashes, the ashes scattered by
the breath Of the last hurricane, and all that
will be left Of this glorious planet will be tho
flakes Of ashes fallen on other worlds o.
on that day will you be ilre-proof, or will
you be total loss, viii you be rescued, or
will you be consumedf When this great
cathedral of the world, with its pillars OF
rocks, and its pinnacles Of mountains, and
its cellar of golden mine, and its upholstery
OF morning cloud, and its baptismal font of
the sea shall blaze, will you get out on the
fire escape of the Lords deliverances o. on
that day for which all other DAYS were
made, may be found that these life insur-
ance men had paid-up policy, and these
fire insurance men had given them instead
Of the debris Of "a consumed worldly estate,
a house not made with hands, eternal in the
hen vpuSt